Thursday, January 31, 2013

Quiz

1.What is our place in the universe? We are located in one of the many galaxies. Ours is called the Milky Way.
How did we come to be?
-After the Big Bang created new elements, which created stars. Stars that live and die that in return create humans. Humans that are made of the same elements as stars.
How can we know what the universe was like in the past?
-We can only see so far into the past of the universe because it was here far before we were. The most one can see back into the universe would be 14 light years away.
Can we see the entire universe?
-No the universe is far to large for us to see the whole universe
How big is Earth compared to our solar system?
- The sun would be the size of a grapefruit, which would make the earth the size of the tip of a pen, and Jupiter would be the size of a marble.
How far away are the stars?
-stars are 4400 kilometers away.
How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?
- The Milky way Galaxy is one of the 100 billion galaxies, and it will take over 3000 years to count all of the stars.
How big is the universe?
- 14 billion light years in radius
How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe?
-Our lifetimes revolve around a calendar year, which the universe does not.
How is Earth moving in our solar system?
- The earth continually rotates on an axis.

Quiz

What is our place in the universe? Earth is a planet orbiting the Sun. Our Sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Our galaxy is one of about 40 galaxies in the Local Group. The Local Group is one small part of the Local Supercluster, which is one small part of the universe.

How did we come to be? The universe began in the Big Bang and has been expanding ever since, except in localized regions where gravity has caused matter to collapse into galaxies and stars. The Big Bang essentially produced only two chemical elements: hydrogen and helium. The rest have been produced by stars, which is why we are composed of star stuff/dust.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past? Light takes time to travel through space, so the farther away we look in distance, the further back we look in time. When we look billions of light- years away, we see pieces of the universe as they were billions of years ago.

Can we see the entire universe? No, the age of the universe limits the extent of our observable universe. Because the Earth is about 14 billion years old, we'd be trying to look to a time before the universe existed because our observable universe extends to a distance of about 14 billion light-years.

How big is Earth compared to our solar system? On a scale of 1 to 10 billion, the Sun is about the size of a grapefruit. Planets are much smaller, with Earth the size of a ballpoint pen.

How far away are the stars? On the 1-to-10 billion scale, it is possible to walk from the Sun to Pluto in just a few minutes. On the same scale, the nearest stars besides the Sun are thousands of kilometers away.

How big is the Milky Way Galaxy? Using a scale in which the Milky Way galaxy is the size of a football field, the distance to the nearest star would be only about 4 millimeters. There are so many stars in our galaxy that it would take thousands of years to count them all.

How big is the universe? The observable universe contains roughly 100 billion galaxies, and the total number of stars is comparable to the number of grains of dry sand on all the beaches on Earth.

How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe? On a cosmic calendar that compresses the history of the universe into one year, human civilization is just a few seconds old, and a human lifetime lasts only a fraction of a second.

How is Earth moving in our solar system? Earth rotates on its axis once each day and orbits the Sun once each year.Earth orbits at an average distance from the sun of 1 AU and with an axis tilt of 23 and a half degrees to a line perpendicular to the ecliptic plane.

Chapter 1
1.1 Our Modern View of the UniverseOur goals for learning
- What is our place in the universe? Our "cosmic address"
-How did we come to be?
-How can we know what the universe was like in the past?
-Can we see the entire universe?Star: A large, glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light through nuclear fusionPlanet: Moderately large object that orbits a star, shines by reflected light. Planets may be rocky, icy, or gaseous in composition.Moon (or satellite): An object that orbits a planet (spheres)Asteroid: A relatively small and rocky object that orbits a star (potato in the sky)Comet: A relatively small and icy object that orbits a starNebula: An interstellar cloud of gas and/or dustGalaxy: A great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity and orbiting a common center (black hole)Universe: Sum total of all matter and energy that is everything within and between all galaxies
Birth of the Universe: 13,700,000,000 years ago
1.

expansion of universe began with hot, big bang

expanded in time

universe continues to expand

on smaller scales, gravity has pulled matter together to create galaxies

2. Galaxies: early universe was composed of hydrogen and helium

3.Life cycles of stars: Many generations of stars have lived and died in the Milky Way.

4. Earth and Life: 2% of hydrogen and helium was converted into heavier elements by the time our solar system was born about four and a half billion years ago.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past?

Light travels at a finite speed (300,000 km/s)

Destination: Moon. Light travel time: 1 second

Destination: Sun. Light travel time: 8 mins

Destination: Sirius. Light travel time: 8 years

Destination: Andromeda Galaxy. Light travel time: 2.5 million years

Thus, we see objects as they were in the past: The farther away we look in distance, the further back we look in time.

Light-year: The distance light can travel in 1 year. About 10 trillion kilometers (6 trillion miles). At great distances, we see objects as they were when the universe was much younger.

*Why can't we see a galaxy 15 billion light-years away? Assume the universe is 14 billion years old. Answer: Looking 15 billion light-years away means looking to a time before the universe existed.

What is our place in the universe?

Earth is part of a solar system, which is the Milky Way Galaxy, which is a member of the Local Group of galaxies in the Local Supercluster.

How did we come to be?

The matter in our bodies

1.2

How big is Earth on this scale (solar system is by a factor of 10 billion. The Sun is the size of a grapefruit, 14 cm in diameter)? Answer: The tip of a ballpoint pen. Earth is the size of a tip of a ballpoint pen, 15 m away, on a 1-to-10 billion scale.

On our 1-to-10 billion scale, it's just a few minute's walk to Pluto. How far would you have to walk to reach Alpha Centauri? Answer: The distance across the United States.

Suppose you try to count more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy at a rate of one per second. How long would it take you? Answer: A few thousand years.

How Big is the Universe

The Milky Way is 1 of about 100 billion galaxies

10^11 stars/galaxy X 10^11= 10^22 stars. It has as many stars as grains of dry sand on all Earth's beaches.

The cosmic calendar: A scale on which we compress the history of the universe into one year.

1.3

Contrary to our perception, we are not "sitting still"

We are moving with the Earth in several ways, and at surprisingly fast speeds

Earth rotates around its axis once every day

Our sun moves randomly relative to the other stars in the local solar neighborhood

at typical relative speeds more than 70,000 km/hr

but stars are so far away that we can't easily notice their motion

...and it orbits the galaxy every 230 million years

Most of the Milky Way's light comes from disk and bulge but most of its mass is in its halo

Galaxies are carried along with the expansion of the universe. But how did Hubble figure out tat the universe is expanding? 1. Discovered that all galaxies outside our Local Group is moving away from us. 2. The more distant the galaxy, the faster it appears to be racing away.

Chapter 2

2.1

With the naked eye, we can see more than 2,000 stars, as well as the Milky Way.

Constellation: A region of the sky. *88 constellations fill the entire sky. *The brightest stars in a constellation...may actually be quite far away from each other

The Celestial Sphere

The ecliptic is the Sun's apparent path through the celestial sphere.

The 88 official constellations cover celestial sphere

The Milky Way

A band of light that makes a circle aroud the Celestial Sphere. What is it? Our view into the plane of our galaxy.

The Local Sky

An object's altitude (above horizon) and direction (along horizon) specify its location in your local sky.

We live on
Earth which is a planet in the solar system that is located in the Milky Way
Galaxy. The Milky Way is a part of the Local Group which is a part of the Local
Supercluster. Everything is thus a part of the universe.

How did we come to be?

The Big
Bang, which took place 14 billion years ago, started the universe through
expansion. New elements, beside the universe’s original hydrogen and helium,
were created through the life cycles of the stars and were released into space
when the star died. As humans, we are made up of those new elements, therefore
we are star dust.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past?

One
light-year is equivalent to 10 trillion kilometers. The farther away we look at
something, the father back in time we can see it. We can see the universe from
formation and onward based on distance.

Can we see the entire universe?

No,
because if we tried looking farther than 14 billion light-years, we couldn’t
see anything. 14 billion light years is the boundary of our observable
universe.

How big is Earth compared to our solar system?

If the sun
equaled the size of a large grapefruit, Jupiter would then equal the size of a
marble and Earth would be the size of the tip of a ball point pen. Earth would
orbit 15 meters away from the sun.

How far away are the stars?

According
to a 1 to 10 billon scale, 1 light-year (10 trillion kilometers) is equal to
1000 kilometers. The closest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.4 light-years
away. On that 1 to 10 billion scale, they are 4400 kilometers away, which is
the distance across the United States.

How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?

On a 1 to
10^19 scale, each light-year becomes 1 mm and the diameter of the Milky Way
becomes 100 meters, which is the length of a football field. The Milky Way has
about 100 billion stars. If you counted 1 star per second, it would take more
than 3000 years to count all of them.

How big is the universe?

The Milky Way is one of 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.
It would take one thousand years to count all of the galaxies and there
are 100 billion stars per galaxy. All of the grains of sand on every beach
on Earth is comparable to the number of stars in the universe.

How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the
universe?

Our
lifetime can be put into a 1 year perspective with the Cosmic Calendar. On
January 1st, the Big Bang occurred. On September 22nd,
early life on Earth began. At 11:58 pm on December 31st, modern
humans evolved. The pyramids were built 11 seconds ago.

How is Earth moving in our solar system?

The Earth
rotates daily around its axis and the speed of the rotation is depends on the
location. Earth orbits the sun in about 365 days.

Our cosmic address: Earth ← Solar System ← Milky Way Galaxy ← Local Group ← Local Supercluster ← The Universe

Star: A large, glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light through nuclear fusion.

Planet: A moderately large object that orbits a star; it shines by reflecting light. (May be rocky, icy, or gaseous)

Moon: An object that orbits a planet.

Asteroid: A relatively small and rocky object that orbits a star.

Comet: A relatively small and icy object that orbits a star.

Nebula: An interstellar cloud of gas and/or dust.

Galaxy: A great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity and orbiting a common center. The center is a black hole.

Universe: The sum total of all matter and energy.

How did we come to be?

Birth of the universe: 13,700,000,000 years ago

The expansion of the universe began with the Big Bang. The universe continues to expand but on smaller scales.

Galaxies are cosmic recycling plants: The early universe contained only hydrogen and helium. All other elements were made by past generations of stars.

Life cycles of stars: Stars are born in clouds of gas and dust. They shine with energy released by nuclear fusion (manufactures elements heavier than hydrogen and helium). Massive stars explode when they die, scattering elements they've produced in space.

Earth and life: By our time the solar system was born, 4.5 billion years ago, 2% of the original hydrogen and helium were converted into heavier elements.

We are star dust.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past?

Light travels at 300,000 km per second.

We see objects as they were in the past.: The farther away we look in distance the further we look back in time.

Question: When will we be able to see what the universe looks like now?

My name is Olivia Ward and I'm majoring in Graphic Design. I plan on transferring to Columbia College after Waubonsee. I've worked at Party City as a sales associate for about three years and I've been freelance designing for small companies and private clients for about four years. I've lived in Aurora my entire life. Honestly, I've never been too interested in science, but I've always had a certain appreciation for Astronomy because of the vastness of the universe.

What is our place in the universe?We as earth have a cosmic address within the solar system, which is contains the Sun and all objects that orbit it. Moons and other planets , asteroids and comets are what orbit the Sun.

How did we come to be?The birth of the Universe was 13,700,000,000 years ago, it was a hot and dense Big Bang began which led to this expansion. Our universe continues to expand,smaller scales of gravity pulls matter together to make galaxies. These galaxies can be referred to as cosmic recycling plants. Earlier the universe contained two chemicals, which were hydrogen and helium. Now about 2 percent of the original hydrogen and helium converted into heavier elements.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past?It is possible now to see the past of the universe by studying light from distant stars and galaxies. This is due to light and the speed in which it travels.The speed of light is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second, which can be compared traveling around the entire Earth eight times in about a second. The fact it takes time for light to travel, scientists have found out the farther away we look into he distance, the further you can look into the past.

Can we see the entire universe?No, you can see the entire universe because there may be things that are farther away that the light had not touched.

How big is Earth compared to our solar system?On a scale in which the Sun is the size of a grapefruit, Earth is the size of a ball point pen tip. Which would orbit the Sun at a distance of 15 meters.

How far away are the stars?Since a light year is about 10 trillion kilometers, which is converted into 1000 kilometers, one to 10 billion scale. The nearest star system to us is a three star system called alpha centauri , and that is about 4.4 light years way. That can be further broken down to 4400 kilometers o the one to 10 billion scale, which is the distance of The United States across.

How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?The Milk Way one of the 100 billion galaxies out there. It would take more than approximately 3000 years to count the stars in the milk way, at a rate of one per per second. The Milky Way way galaxy is about 100,000 light years across in length.

How big is the universe?-The universe has many stars as grains of (dry)sand on all Earth's beaches. There about 100 billion galaxies, and counting. If measured the universe is about 14 billion light years in radius.

How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe?Lifetimes can be compared to the age of earth by the cosmic Calendar;. This is a scale on which we have compressed the history of th universe in a single year.

How is Earth moving in our solar system?Earth is moving in several ways, and at different speeds. Earth rotates on its axis every single day, and the farther south you travel, the bigger distance you rotate. This is due to the fact Earth is a sphere.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

"ADAIRSVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A massive storm system raked the Southeast on Wednesday, generating tornadoes and dangerous winds that flipped cars on a major Georgia interstate, demolished homes and businesses and killed at least two people."

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

"On the eve of science writer Katie Worth's experiment to live on Mars time and blog about how it feels, she explains how living between time zones across the universe can prove disastrous without guidance from sleep scientists"

Monday, January 28, 2013

My name is Devin Broderick. I am pursuing a Music Education degree. I work full time at Target. And I am an infantryman in the Illinois National Guard with my two year anniversary approaching in march. Already I look forward to your class. I found so much interesting during our first day.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

Chapter1:
what is our place in the universe:
-our "cosmic address"
-earth is the third rock from the sun
-Star: a large glowing ball of gas that makes heat and light by nuclear fusion (Sun)
-PLanet: a large object that orbits a star, and shines by reflected light. (may be
rocky,icy or gaseous) ex: Mars or Uranus
-Moon(satellite) a object that orbits a planet
-Asteroid: small and rocky object that orbits stars (Mathilde)
-Comet: small and icy object thats orbits stars
-Nebula: a interstellar cloud of ga/or dust (there is on in Orion the constellation)
-Galaxy: great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity and orbiting a
common center (a black hole is in the middle of a galaxy) ex:M31, the great
galaxy in the Andromeda
-Universe: the sum of the total all the matter and energy, everything in and
between all galaxies
-Earth is a part of the solar system, which is the Milky Way which is the member
of the local Group of Galaxies in the Local Super Cluster
How did we come to be:
-Birth of the Universe was 13,700,000,000 years ago
-Hot and dense Big Bang began with this expansion
-as the universe continues to expand,smaller scales of gravity pulls matter
together to make galaxies
-galaxies as cosmic recycling plants. the early universe contained two chemicals:
hydrogen and helium All other elements were made by stars or were recycled
from one generation to generation from galaxy to the next
-many generations of stars have lived and died in Milky Way
-by the time solar system was born, 4 1/2 billion years ago, about 2% of the
original hydrogen and helium had been converted into heavier elements.
-
How can we know what the universe was like in the past:
-light travels at a finite seed (300,00 km/s)
-we see objects as they were in the past : The farther away we look in the
distance, the further back we look in the time.
-moon is 1 second of light travel time from earth
-sun is 8minutes away in light travel from earth
-Sirius is 8 years of light travel from earth
-Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million years of light travel form earth
-light year:the distance light can travel in 1 year...
approximately 10 trillion kilometers (6 trillion miles)
-a great distance, we can see how things were, of course this was when the
universe was much younger
Can we see the entire universe:
-no because there may be things that are farther away that the light had not
touched
-why can't we see a galaxy 15 billion light years away?
a. No galaxies exist at such a great distance
b. Galaxies may exist at this distance, but their light would be too faint for our
telescopes to see
c. Looking 15 billion light years away means looking to a time a time befor the
universe existed
answer C
1.2 The scale of the Universe
How big Earth compared to our solar system?
-How big is the Earth on this scale ? (
a. an atom
b.a tip of a ball point pen
c. marble
d. a golf ball
Answer B
How faraway are the stars?
-In our 1to 10 billion scale, its just a few minutes walk to pluto?
how far would u have to ealk to reach Alpha Centauri? a. 1 mile
b. 10 miles
c. 100 miles
d. The distance across the Unite States (2500) miles
answer D
Suppose you tied to count the more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy, at rate of
one per second..
How long would it take you?
a. a few weeks
b. a few months
c. a few years
d. a few thousand years
Answer D
How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?
-is one of the 100 billion galaxies
-it would take more than 3000 ears t count the stars in the milk way at a rate of
one per second. the Milky Way way galaxy is about 100,000 light years across
How big is the Universe?
-it has many stars as grains of (dry)sand on all Earth's beaches
-100 billion glaxies
-14 billion light years in radius
How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe?
-The cosmic Calendar; a scale on which we compress the history of th universe
in 1 year
1.3 Spaceship Earth
How is Earth moving in the solar system?
-We are not "sitting still"
-we are moving in several ways, and at different speeds
-earth rotates on its axis once every day
-the farther you go south, the bigger the distance you have to rotate because
earth is a sphere
-our sun moves relatively to the other stars in the local solar neighborhood
-typical speed is more than 70,000 km/hr
-stars are so far that they cannot easily notices their motion
-orbits the galaxy every 230 million years
How is our solar system moving in the Milky Way Galaxy?
-most of the light comes from the disk and bulge...but most of the mass is in its
halo
How do galaxies move within the universe?
-galaxies are carrie along with the expansion of the universe.
-the more distant between galaxies the faster they move
Are we ever sitting still?
NO!!!!!
Chapter 2: Discovering the Universe for Yourself
2.1 Patterns in the night sky
what does the universe look like from the earth?
-with the naked eyes, we can see more than 2000 stars as well as the Milky Way
-ancients thought someone spilled milk in the sky, thats how it got its name
-a constellations is a region of the sky
-eighty eight constellations are in the entire sky
The brightest of stars in a constellation..
a. all belong to th same star cluster
b. all lie about the same distance form the earth
c.may actually be quite far away from each other
answer C
-celestial sphere: stars at different distances appear to be on the same celestial
sphere
-the ecliptic s the Sun's apparent path through the celestial sphere
-88 constellations cover the celestial sphere
-milk way is a band if the light that makes a circle around the celestial sphere
-local sky: an object's altitude(above horizon) and direction (along horizon)
specify its location in you local sky
-zenith:the point directly overhead
-horizon:all points 90 degrees away form Zenith
-meridian :line passing through zenith
-full circle = 360 degrees
-1 degree= 60 arcminutes
-1 arcminutes=60 arcseconds
the angular size of your finger at arms lengths is about 1 degree. how many
arcseconds is this?
a 60 arc seconds
b 600 arcseconds
c 60x60=3600 arcseconds
answer C
Why do stars rise and set?
Why do the constellations we see depend on the latitude and time of year?

NASA has officially joined the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, a space telescope that will launch in 2020 to study the mysterious dark matter and dark energypervading the universe.

NASA will contribute 16 infrared detectors and four spares for one of the Euclid telescope's two planned science instruments, agency officials announced today (Jan. 24). NASA has also nominated 40 new members for the Euclid Consortium, an international body of 1,000 scientists that will oversee the mission and its development.

"NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one of the greatest science mysteries of our time," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

Astronomers think the "normal" matter we can see and touch makes up just 4 percent of the universe. The rest is comprised of dark matter and dark energy — strange stuff whose existence scientists infer from its influence on the 4 percent.

Dark energy is especially intriguing, since many researchers believe it to be the strange force responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. But just what it is remains a mystery.

The Euclid mission hopes to shine some light into the universe's darkest corners. After launching to a gravitationally stable spot called the sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, the 4,760-pound (2,160-kilogram) spacecraft will spend six years mapping and studying up to two billion galaxies throughout the universe.

Euclid's observations of these galaxies and their distribution should allow astronomers to better understand how the universe's acceleration has changed over time, revealing key insights about the nature of dark matter and dark energy, NASA officials said.

"ESA's Euclid mission is designed to probe one of the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology, and we welcome NASA's contribution to this important endeavor, the most recent in a long history of cooperation in space science between our two agencies," Alvaro Gimenez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, said in a statement.

The Euclid mission is slated to cost ESA 606 million euros, or $810 million at current exchange rates. NASA is considering its own dark-energy mission, the roughly $1.5 billion Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope. If it eventually gets the official go-ahead, WFIRST is unlikely to launch before 2025, agency officials have said.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The concept of consciousness represents a state of mind. When we go to sleep it changes, there may be dreams. When we are thinking, images appear, like an image of my deceased mother going to cook. This state of mind, as far as we know, has never existed before Homo sapiens appeared on Earth. When there is consciousness, knowledge appears, now knowledge changes the Universe.The current cosmology teaches, that more than thirteen thousand million years ago, almost everything was different. From before that moment, which is called the Big Bang, we do not know what was the same to things today, “Time” allows us to perceive change and permanence. Some things change, others stay the same. By mass, the amount of matter participating in consciousness is practically zero, but nevertheless, it exists, and it is important. Our pointy heads resemble antennae, we see each other’s eyes, and through them, we know what we mean when we talk. Consciousness is social. Before each one of us was born, our ancestors constructed social consciousness, as we grow inside a community, we build our own personal consciousness, and through our children we pass the biological conditions to acquire this social consciousness to the future of the Universe. Besides the external marks to guide our consciousness, there are internal marks, passed to our children by chemical combinations, which allow the permanence of biological traits. DNA is one of these repositories of information for our children.Some of the stages in the evolution of the Universe are: quarks and leptons, tied together with gluons, weak bosons, and photons. Protons, and neutrons, turning into two main types of nuclei: Hydrogen, and Helium. By gravitational attraction hydrogen nuclei, i.e. protons, and helium, made of two protons, form stars; these stars turn hydrogen, and helium into carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, among other nuclei. Big enough stars explode throwing new elements in space. Dust and water provide bench tables, where other molecules like alcohol, are formed. Even the complex molecule, glycine, may be present in the so-called molecular clouds in space.At some moment in this race towards complexity, life appeared on Earth. After life, consciousness followed.It is unlikely that my failings will stop my consciousness growth. They would definitely hamper this growth, but not stop it. The Otomi in Mexico have been living under very harsh conditions, and they keep moving in their quest for knowledge. The young otomis come to the United States to get money for their families in Mexico.My friend Antonella Faggetti de Glockner, my sister Sandra Cantoral, and other enlightened women, are helping to bring about, communication between different social consciousness. We do not have to go to Alpha Centauri, to meet intelligent beings outside our European Cosmovision. On the other hand, the Cosmovision I use here, can be understood by all conscious beings we know. This could truly be, the first Cosmic Vision on Earth. This vision is presented in “The New Universe and the Human Future”, by Abrams and Primack.On January 20, 2013, Barack Obama took office for the second time. He is the 44th President of the USA. He changed health care in this country, he built social consciousness for his two daughters. On Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day, there was an inauguration ceremony for the first African American President of the USA. The life of this country has been hard, Lincoln could not participate in Reconstruction, I hope Obama can implement Immigration Reform.

Apart from five pages for this report, I expect to see a write-up from each class, i.e., I want to see your class notes.

Course Topics:

1. The scale of the universe2. The night sky and stellar observations3. Cycles of the moon and sun4. Archeoastronomy5. Origins of modern astronomy; including the Copernican Revolution, Brahe, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein6. Tools of astronomy; including light, radiation, and telescopes (ground, and space based)7. Stellar evolution; including nebulae, and HR diagrams8. Life and death of stars; including processes, and types, such as main sequence, variable stars, supernovae, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes9. Galaxies; including Hubble classification, AGN, and quasars10. The solar system; its origin, inner planets, outer planets, asteroids, comets, KBOs11. Cosmology; including Big Bang, Hubble equation, and current theories12. Life in the universe

A: (&gt;90%) Outstanding performance in of the subject. Achievement of superior quality.

B: (80-89%) Consistent performance beyond the usual requirement of the course. Achievement of high quality.

C: (70-79%) Performance of a satisfactory nature; 'average' grade.

D: (60-69%) Minimally acceptable performance.

F: (≤60%) Achievement at a level insufficient to demonstrate understanding of the basic elements of the course.I: Incompletes will be granted only to students in good standing under extreme circumstances.

W: Instructor will only withdraw a student from this class due to disruptive conduct.

Cases of plagiarism will be given a score of 0, with possible referral to the Student Conduct Board.

Expectations:Conduct yourself in all manners as an adult in a formal education environment; including assuming responsibility for your choices and actions (i.e., see make-up policy), adhering to proper classroom etiquette, and conforming to academic policies and deadlines. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

You are prepared for each class discussion, including pre-class reading from the text. Students must obtain changes that are announced in class; it is your responsibility to seek for this new information.

You should consult me promptly if you are struggling or consistently receive failing grades in the class.

Make Up Policy:

Make-up homework and exams will be granted only if you contact me BEFORE the due date, and may only be for valid reasons such as emergencies or severe illness and if you can provide written verification. The validity of these reasons is at the discretion of the instructor. The following are NOT valid reasons for a make-up exam: vacations, oversleeping, forgetting, car troubles (mechanical or logistical). Missing exams or assignments can seriously affect affect your grade. If you are granted a make-up exam, your grade may be reduced.

Term Paper and Homework:

As I told you during the first lecture, I want a write-up of what you understood in the lecture. I prefer you post it online, I recommend the Google service I am using right now. It is called Blogger, register in http://www.blogger.com . Each write-up should have an introduction, development, and conclusion. If you do not do it electronically, I am expecting a paper copy in class when we meet.

The sum total of your notes will be in a term paper. Whichever way you do it, I do not want copy and paste. If I find out, that your term paper was ripped off from a classmate, or other sources, I will subtract points appropriately.

You will write a mandatory five-page term paper on the book "The Universe Within", by Neil Shubin, due on the date noted on the class schedule. It is strongly recommended that you begin the paper early! A brief introductory abstract should summarize the contents to follow and the main focus of the paper is on the science content. More details will be provided in class.

Class Schedule and Attendance:

Be sure to do the textbook readings before the corresponding lecture so that you can ask any questions during the lecture. You are given 1 week to complete assignments, after the due date, you will lose points at 10% per day. Remember, in-class assignments cannot be made up and only ONE late assignment will be accepted for the entire course.

Attendance/Classroom Policy:

A passing grade is not possible without regular attendance and participation. Successful completion of in-class assignments is vital to your grade. Note that in-class assignments CANNOT BE MADE UP. At least one-half of all homework assignments must be completed or you may fail. In the event that your final grade is borderline, regular excellent class participation may make a difference. Students whose conduct disrupts the class will be asked to leave; repeated offenses will result in withdrawal from the class.

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

1. Apply scientific and mathematical reasoning to interpret observed phenomena.2. Demonstrate a familiarity with the basic vocabulary and concepts in modern astronomy.3. Describe the fundamental ideas of archeoastronomy.4. Describe the motions of celestial bodies (moon, planets, stars) in the night sky.5. Describe the electromagnetic spectrum, and its importance and use in astronomy.6. Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental concepts used in modern astronomy including gravity, ground-and-space - based telescopes, and spectroscopy.7. Describe the birth and structure of the solar system, including the Sun, the Terrestrial, and Jovian planets, the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts, and the Oort Cloud.8. Describe the properties of and the birth, evolution, and death of stars, including types and processes.9. Describe the properties and types of galaxies including dark matter.10. Describe the current thoughts on dark energy, cosmology and extraterrestrial life.